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| Woodland casual shoes for men |
Five years back, Woodland, the
inventor of outdoor footwear and clothing, with a growing business in the
country metro’s, choose to test waters in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Its strategy to opened a
woodland store in Jaipur and Udaipur because both cities are well maintained and
more and more chances to developed business.
But the stores dangle - there
just weren't more purchasers - and had to shut. Woodland then committed to
stopover from minor cities for a deuce of years. No more examination, no more
verification waters was the information from the head office in Delhi.
One and half year ago, during
the buzz around the probable of Tier two and Tier three towns, Woodland opt to
deal into these cities once again. This time it twisted its strategy a bit.
Alternatively of opening the
officials 300 sq.ft stores, it decided to go full control taking up whole buildings
or up to 30-40% of all the space in a mall, and changing them into spacious,
almost large-format mall.
We opt to make the Woodland
store a monument in such towns. Nothing works like word of mouth in small
cities and towns. If public see a big store which stands out, it becomes a
talking point and they make sure they visit it," says Woodland Managing Director
or MD Harkirat Singh.
For the time being, the strategy
seems to be working. The response from such stores has been encouraging. But
Singh admits what's also working in his favour is a sea change in the retail
landscape and consumer attitude in the past two or three years. Smaller cities
are buzzing with retail activity.
Branded stores are coming up
left, right and centre, and the consumer is no longer shy of opening his
wallet. "The consumer in these cities is now ready. The youth is becoming
brand conscious, and we see them much more open to spending," says Singh.
No doubt, Woodland has been on
an expansion spree in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. While currently 60 per cent of
its 300-plus stores are located in metros and 40 per cent in smaller cities,
Woodland wants this to change to 50-50 in the next one or two years, and then
gradually to 40 per cent in metros and 60 per cent in smaller cities.
"In the past two or three
months alone we've opened stores in Varanasi, Allahabad, Vapi, Sangli, Thrissur
and so on. Unlike five years ago, many of these stores have been doing well
from day one. Our plans for the next two to three years will be concentrated on
Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities," says Singh.
"Certainly there is a big
difference in real estate costs when it comes to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities
versus the metros. But what companies like Woodland will have to be careful
about is that not every such city is going to work. Not every location drives
enough demand for such products for the business to sustain. Yes, latent demand
is there in many cities and locations, but Woodland will have to carefully
evaluate the sites before selecting them,"says Devangshu Dutta, chief
executive, Third Eyesight, a retail consulting firm which has been tracking the
sector in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
But that's a significant shift
for a brand which has primarily been catering to the urban middle class in big
cities for almost two decades. Woodland is a sub-brand of Aero Group which
started as a winter boot manufacturer in Quebec, Canada in the 1950s. Called
Aero America then, it manufactured outdoor winter boots for Canada, Russia and
Europe.
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